Friday, January 16, 2009

I get a lot of people asking what their numbers should be, about, before doing Naxx-10 and -25.

I hate those questions. Not just because I have no real good idea, mind you, but because it's really subjective. Is your group experienced? How are they geared? How well do they play? It's really dependent on a lot of factors.

That being said, you should shoot for some basic values and go for certain pieces of gear. For that, I've put together a quick set of benchmarks based on gear that you can get from normal dungeons, quests, craftables and purchase. This is all gear that anyone with a small amount of money that should be able to obtain. I'll list it here; if you're wondering about the choices, keep in mind that this is bare minimum stuff. It's not the best, it's not even close.

But it should be fine for Naxx.

This assumes that you'll be MTing everything save patchwerk, which you'll OT.

In the 3.08 world, you should be shooting for at least 30k armor. Pre-308 this will be by necessity closer to 25k unless you've been able to get the offering of sacrifice or Enraged Feral staff. 25k is the bare minimum I'd want for Naxx.

For health, you should be shooting for close to 28k unbuffed. Get the polar gear made; it'll help a lot in this, and you'll likely use it later anyway. If you've got more armor, you can skimp on this some.

For avoidance, you should be around 30%. It's not perfect, but it's pretty close. This will really depend a lot on gear.

Hit and expertise aren't as crucial here. They can be skimped; assuming you're going in with similarly geared people, your threat should be more than adequate.

Here's the full list of stats and gear. Note that I didn't replace the rare gems with uncommon ones, but it should be fairly close. This comes directly from Rawr, and assumes 3.08 mechanics; pre-308 mechanics should favor more armor on the jewelry/trinket/cloak slots.

Finally, I would strongly recommend getting the Enraged Feral Staff as quickly as you can. This should be your first goal upon hitting 80, and not acquiring it will be pretty painful for Naxx.

10 comments:

Felkan
said...

Thanks, I have most of that except for the rings and trinkets. I'm still using Ring of the Stalwart Protector and Violet Signet of the Great Protector, Badge of Tenacity and Trinket XXX???. After 3.08 I (an inscriber) will be able to make my own Darkmoon Card: Greatness which will replace the trinket whose name I can't recall.

Felkan - the trinkets were totally pulled out of my ass and shouldn't be at all used for gospel. They're not good at all. There aren't many pre-Naxx trinkets that are good, really, until you do heroics - but I specifically left heroic trinkets out. With the ones you listed you'll be fine. Same goes for the rings, though getting a ring of earthen might would be a good choice.

The enchant assumption was 'budget city'. Heavy Borean patches, second-grade agility and expertise. Nothing that cost abyss crystals or more than 5 dust.

Gems were all rare-quality, but it shouldn't make more than a one-gem difference.

Karthis - feel free. The thing is, I believe that there is no real difference in gear minimum between doing Naxx and doing heroics. Heck, Naxx probably could be easier. As such, I chose gear that you could reasonably have before setting foot in one heroic. There are plenty of upgrades, but this is what I'd do if I wanted to try the Spider wing, for instance. For something like Patch or Sapphiron I would want a lot more.

If you have a different philosophy, that's cool - just know where I'm coming from.

After a longish pause due to lack of motivation I started playing again and my druid managed to become 80 on Saturday before noon.

Thanks to your older list I already had the quest items from CoT4 and Utgarde Pinnacle, and the Trollwoven items and the Nerubhide cloak were waiting in the bank.

I ran four heroics in the afternoon (I had my doubts if it could work, but the healer wondered why halfway through the first instance):- Utgarde (no Enraged Feral Staff though)- Violet Hold (no helmet and no Staff of Trickery)- Halls of Stone (the last two boss events are bloody aweful; at least I got nice boots; this was the only instance where the healer couldn't keep me alive sometimes, maybe not enough avoidance yet?)- Drak'Tharon (Keystone Great-Ring on the first run, yay!)

After those I had enough Kirin Tor reputation to buy the leggings and the staff. I'm still using Wildfury for bosses due to the better armor, but that will change after the patch.

Currently I'm around:33K health buffed (don't know unbuffed right now)27K armour (the new ring helps)close to 36% dodge (still a far cry from the 40% I had in late BC, but much better than on Friday)

I'm getting Wyrmrest reputation for the Dragonfriend Bracers. My current ones are a level 70 random drop, but apart from the armour they are better than the Eviscerator ones in every aspect.

The first item I'll get for emblems of heroism will be Valor Medal of the First War to exchange Moroes' Lucky Pocketwatch, since Badge of Tenacity will be more or less crap after the patch.I visit to Azjol-Nerub is also planned, of course.

I'll also need to replace the level 78 quest items as soon as possible and get a decent amulet (let's see what the guild jewelcrafters can do).

But in the end I was quite surprised how many good equipment changes there were on just one day, especially after I could get only *two* new item before level 78, which was quite frustrating.

Our warriors are still better equipped, but they already have a lot of Naxx items. That's why I was only a damage dealer in Naxx25 yesterday (no loot though, lots of plate armour, and I didn't win the amulet from Patchwerk).

One or two weeks ago I was really frustrated about the lack of upgrades, my (consequential) disability to hold aggro as well as I would have liked, and the vastness of the new patch. Today the future looks a bit better and I think I'm having more fun with the game again.

Thanks again for your item lists. I wouldn't have had such a clear picture where to being collecting items without them.

Hey, Quaiche, thanks for coming by. The Handwraps of Preserved History did get really nerfed - but for starting content, they're still really strong and very easy to get. There is definitely better gear pre-Naxx, but as long as you have at least these you'll be fine.

Anon, the dodge cap is 75% but it's unobtainable. In theory, defense becomes better than dodge when you have 51% dodge from items. This would be around 4000 agility worth of dodge, though, so it's not really obtainable any time soon either.

Because of the way raid buffs stack, you should always stack agility over dodge whenever possible. If it's not possible, stack dodge, then defense.

In my experience this is a little over the top for a simple naxx 10 with similarly geared people. I am currently at 40.26% dodge, 34,187 health unbuffed, and 26,611 armor and i am tanking heroic tribute 25 ToGC no problem. I can solo some of the trash in naxx. I have never been able to hit that 30k armor. as i see it dodge rating and health is much more important. Great starting information for those just starting out though.

ThinkTank bio

About Me

Kalon likes playing tanks, no matter how hard he tries to fight it. He is not as hardcore as many but spends a lot of time thinking about WoW, and randomly rants about it now and then. He played formerly on the Argent Dawn (EU) server and was a founding member of Fire and Blood (Quel'Dorei) before joining Casually Serious, a guild devoted to hard core progression on only 8 hours of raiding time a week.
He is a devoted husband, father, and when he has the time programs software.